Back-Log

Oct 30 Review: Batman Arkham Origins

After the masterpiece of gameplay and storytelling that was Batman: Arkham City, the timeline takes
a little step back returning instead to the origins of the Dark Knight and how
he first met some of the greatest members of his rouges gallery as a young caped
crusader. This is a game I have equally been anticipating and worried for, I
have played Arkham Asylum/City
multiple times and spent countless hours beating down thugs in challenge maps
and exploring every inch of the environment, especially being in an open world
like the last game, it’s sufficient to say I really got my money’s worth out of
these games.

As much as I loved Rocksteady’s take on the Batman mythos (I
was sold when they cast Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill in Arkham Asylum) I was hesitant to allow myself to get hyped up when
I found out that not only was Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill not returning for Batman: Arkham Origins but also that the
game would be developed by WB Games Montreal using assets provided by
Rocksteady. I assume that this was because Rocksteady is currently working on a
next-gen Arkham game. My faith in outsourcing development of a sequel to
another developer hasn’t been iron clad, Knights
of the Old Republic 2 (developed by Obsidian) was a buggy shell of how
great the original KOTOR was, and
while I loved Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas (also developed by
Obsidian) felt like absolute shite and did not capture the same experience I
had playing its former.

As a Batman fan and a die hard follower of the Arkham
series, I had to give this game a shot (for better or for worse) but to be
honest, the core gameplay of the Arkham games sits at such a sweet level of
damn near perfection that even if the story of Arkham Origins was absolute garbage, I would still enjoy the game
for the gameplay alone.

Story:

It’s Christmas Eve and Black Mask has put a bounty on your
head, by this point Bruce Wayne has been Batman for only two years; he’s raw,
stubborn, and intensely untrusting of the GCPD. The city is empty and citizens
are urged to stay indoors. The streets are empty save for members of the GCPD
and various thugs working for one of the many criminal elements in the city, in
an effort to protect the denizens of Gotham, Batman goes out into a snow
covered city to apprehend the assassins chasing him.

At first I was curious about how the Joker would fit into
this, when they were announcing the list of villains, characters like
Copperhead or Deathstroke fit right in with the list of assassins, but Joker is
the kind of villain you can’t really put into words. His involvement will
eventually become something you were not expecting and this reveal was hands
down my favorite moment from the narrative. As an origin story, the mythos is
already solidified but to see how the Arkham universe finds its origin is
ultimately satisfying.

One aspect I was very critical of, I assume is because of
how well crafted the story of Arkham City
was, is that I was not as engaged with Origins
as I was with City. The core
story I thought was good but many of the side missions felt more like throwaway
segments, not really contributing much to the overall story, with Arkham City all the stories woven into
side quests had that one common denominator with the main narrative, we are all
trapped here in Arkham City and these are the stories of the criminals forced
to survive it. Disarming Anarky’s bombs and hunting down Black Mask’s drug
stashes can’t hold a candle to the Hush side quest or the even Bane’s side
quest from City. It may be a bit of a
spoiler but I feel like I need to address this, while eight assassins are
chasing Batman, not all the encounters feel like the epic battles they should.
Shiva and Deadshot are very easy to miss since prompting their encounters
involve triggering more of a side quest rather than being part of the main
quest, and the way they handled the Electrocutioner… absolute disappointment.

The DC Universe was mentioned quite often in the narrative,
from cues about Metropolis to storage containers with the Queen Industries logo
slapped on it. Those who have a strong understanding of Batman in the comics
will also notice references ripped directly from the pages of “Knightfall” and
“A Killing Joke” right alongside this tale of a younger Batman. There was one
scene that I saw where I absolutely lost it, slight spoiler but it involves the
Joker and one of his many possible origin stories.

So how did it measure up after absolutely falling in love
with Arkham City? To be honest, it
didn’t feel the same but I did enjoy it. I’m a bit of a Batman purist and I
could see a storyline like this occur in one of the many comic book arcs.
Little nods to the DC Universe and some unexpected cameos make for a satisfying
story, regardless of where it falls short of excellence.

Presentation:

Visually, the game looks great! It looks a lot like how Arkham City looked, retaining the same
visual aesthetic. Areas in this younger Gotham that appeared in Arkham City are almost brick for brick
the same. Visually, I have no initial complaints… but I do have some complaints
after playing a few hours. The game looks great when it works, but far too
often (especially after a load screen) there is some serious texture pop in,
when battles get a bit too heavy there are some frame rate issues. The former
is more manageable, sure it ends up pulling me out of the core narrative a bit,
but the later can make up the difference between keeping my high combo or
getting blindsided by a baddie with a metal pipe. The game looks fantastic I
think perhaps WB Games Montreal bit off a little more than they could chew
developing it for the current generation, it really does push the console
hardware to its absolute limit, while this can create some fantastic imagery…
far too often it adversely affects the visuals.

Sometimes pre-rendered cut scenes face the frame rate drop,
slowing down to a crawl with audio cutting out, nothing really affected the
story of the game but it happened far too often to ignore.

The voice acting is stellar again, with Mark Hamill retiring
from the role (especially after the events of Arkham City) and Kevin Conroy in the booth for the next Arkham
installment. They went to Roger “EZIO” Craig Smith and Troy “the Daniel Day
Lewis of voice acting” Baker to portray Batman and The Joker respectively. Troy
Baker literally stole the show with his portrayal, his take on the Mark Hamill
Joker is so good it sent chills up and down my spine. Roger Craig Smith plays
the Dark Knight very well and actually sounds like he could have been a younger
Kevin Conroy Batman, there were a few moments he slipped into Christian Bale
growl mode but those were brief and never really lasted beyond a line or two. A
strong support cast including Martin Jarvis, Steve Blum, Chris Cox, Kelly Hu, and
Matthew Mercer (to name a few) round out what I believe to be one of the best
casted Batman games yet… yes even better than the casting in Arkham City.

The music is impressive and retains that signature
sound/feel of the Arkham games established in Arkham Asylum. No complaints here when it comes to the music.

Gameplay:

Ah yes, the bread and butter of this game. My favorite
aspect of the Arkham games and I am pleased to announce that it is still in
tact. Primarily the free flow brawling mechanic established since the first
game. Build up a high enough combo and you can perform a quick take down on a
specific foe or even several downed foes. Armored goons and shield goons return
along with the many other variations of melee weapon equipped thugs. New to the
opposition are martial artists, elite strong men, and venom users. Martial
artists will pose the most annoying bit of opposition for Batman, unlike the
elite strong men or the venom users who I can dodge and flip over, martial
artists can blindside the Bat and break a combo, this is especially annoying
when I build a high enough combo then BOOM! Stupid karate kid.

Predator encounters are my favorite encounters in an Arkham
game, this is largely unchanged. If you played any of the prior Arkham games,
this will feel very familiar.

Many of the gadgets return, but they did manage to throw in
some impressive new gadgets. After the Deathstroke battle, you get his remote
grapple to creating tight ropes to even attaching each end to a guard and
making them bash into each other. Other applications involve sending propane tanks
or fire extinguishers right into unsuspecting thugs and even (after an upgrade)
zipping an unsuspecting foe to a vantage point. The glue grenade pretty much
replaces the freeze grenade from Arkham
City. The most impressive new gadget come from a downed Electrocutioner,
you integrate his shock gloves into your gloves and after beating down on a few
foes, you can activate them and lay waste to anyone in your way. Of course this
doesn’t last the whole battle, but when you charge them this can turn the tide
in battle… especially since shielded foes and armored foes fall to standard
punches.

Detective mode is given a new added upgrade, now you can
recreate a crime scene and rewind it in the Batcomputer. This creates another
opportunity to flex his detective skills and also make for some good side
quests, though after a few crime scene side quests the overall mechanic gets a
bit stale.

Zipping around the city is very reminiscent of Arkham City. The grapnel boost is
unlocked from the start, but that doesn’t make much sense since (if I remember
correctly) the grapnel boost was an experimental gadget you could unlock in Arkham City, so I wonder how they
justified it here? Perhaps they assumed not too many people unlocked that
upgrade in City? Other than that
slight hiccup, the gameplay is mostly unchanged. I did notice a few things that
I may have to verify but the Batman in Origins
feels heavier compared to the Batman in Asylum
or City. Not that much of a complaint
but it did take some getting used to.

One big change is the ability to go back to the Batcave,
this younger Batman doesn’t have the Batmobile yet, instead he zips around the
city on his Batwing. With the Gotham of Origins
being much bigger than City’s, newly
added to the map are drop points to fast travel, though these do come at a
price, a shadowy figure you know only as Enigma has hacked GCR towers to
interfere with the Batwing’s on board computer, until you deactivate the tower you
can’t use the drop point. I love the fast travel but exploring the city was
still my first priority.

The boss battles were all very reminiscent of earlier Arkham
games. Copperhead and Shiva’s battles were a lot like the Ra’s al Ghul battle,
the final Bane encounter felt a lot like the Mister Freeze battle. The only
ones that really felt unique were the Deathstroke, Deadshot, and Firefly
battle. The side quests proved to be interesting, I like how more obscure
villains like Anarky were introduced. The Mad Hatter returns and his side quest
resembled the Scarecrow challenge maps more than his role in Arkham City. Batman: Arkham Origins is more of the same, which isn’t a bad thing
considering how much I loved the previous games.

I wanted to mention the multiplayer but I’ve had trouble
with matches, servers migrating and matches that end abruptly. I won’t factor
this into the review but I will follow up with a feature about multiplayer at a
later date.

Verdict:

A few hiccups keep this game from being the masterpiece that
Batman: Arkham City was. But a
satisfying story and more of the same in the gameplay department keep me happy…
that is until I get a new Arkham game. See you next-gen Rocksteady!